San Marcos, TX has a C safety grade (45/100) with a violent crime rate of 359 per 100,000, 2% above the national average.
FBI UCR 2024 · per-capita rates · large city
San Marcos, TX Crime Rate & Safety
At 72,723 residents, San Marcos is a large city: FBI UCR Table 8 rates (per 100,000) here are read against TX and U.S. averages before the offense-family breakdown.
San Marcos, TX carries a PlainCrime C safety grade with violent crime 2% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, San Marcos, TX shows violent crime at 358.9 per 100,000 residents and property crime at 2,257.9 per 100,000. Violent crime runs 2% above the U.S. average. PlainCrime assigns grade C from those rates. Figures are voluntary agency submissions joined to population denominators; incomplete coverage can move the number.
C safety grade
358.9/100K violent
2257.9/100K property
+2% vs U.S.
What the 2024 FBI UCR record shows for San Marcos, TX
Comparable rate records
San Marcos's closest reported-rate comparisons are in the Texas cohort
The nearest comparable 2024 records to San Marcos's 358.9 violent-crime rate per 100,000 are Roman Forest (358.3), Cockrell Hill (357.3), Port Aransas (357.2), Flatonia (360.8). These are same-year agency submissions that pass the same completeness screen, not a claim that the cities have identical conditions. They make the cohort position above checkable against named records instead of a generic state average.
Position in the state cohort
San Marcos reported a higher violent-crime rate than most comparable Texas cities
At 358.9 reported violent offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024, San Marcos ranks 151 of 686 — above 535 of the 685 other Texas cities whose 2024 submission passes this site’s completeness test. That is +100.6% against the cohort median of 178.9. Cities that did not report, or that reported implausibly low totals, are excluded from this cohort rather than counted as low-crime.
2020–2024 direction
The reported violent-crime rate ended the window lower
Across 5 comparable reporting years, the rate moved from 440.4 per 100,000 in 2020 to 358.9 in 2024 (-18.5%). The highest observed value was 659.3 in 2022 and the lowest 358.9 in 2024. Years whose submission failed the completeness test are left out of this comparison rather than plotted as change.
Property counts dominate San Marcos's FBI UCR Table 8 municipal row. Per-100,000 rates use the reporting-year population on that row; cities that fail the completeness test stay out of rate rankings. A citywide figure rarely describes any single neighbourhood inside the municipal boundary.
On a large city row, these are citywide reported offense totals - not neighbourhood advice. Conditions vary by place and time; reporting rates differ across jurisdictions.
San Marcos's 2024 municipal footprint
Across 39.9 Census sq mi, San Marcos logged 41.1 property and 6.5 violent offenses per square mile in 2024.
San Marcos's 2024 book concentrates in larceny-theft (61% of 1,903 offenses; mix index 4,158).
Violent offenses are only 14% of the municipal total - a property-led book.
Density uses Census Gazetteer land area (39.9 sq mi); mix index is HHI x 10,000 on the offense-type shares above. Distinct from the per-100K rates in the hero.
Violent rate moved most (2023→2024)
Violent Crime Rate
-22.1%
460.7 → 358.9/100K
Property Crime Rate
-2%
2304.9 → 2257.9/100K
Property offenses lead San Marcos's 2024 record
Offense
Count
Rate /100K
vs US avg
Property Crime
1,642
2257.9
1711
Larceny-Theft
1,164
1600.6
-
Motor Vehicle Theft
284
390.5
-
Burglary
194
266.8
-
Arson
2
2.8
-
Violent Crime
261
358.9
352
Aggravated Assault
164
225.5
-
Rape
70
96.3
-
Robbery
27
37.1
-
Murder
0
0
-
San Marcos Crime Trend (2020-2024)
San Marcos property crime rate trend
Lead series · rose across 5 comparable years · FBI UCR
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · split lines are the U.S. national averages
San Marcos Police Department
Reporting agency for San Marcos NIBRS-participating
San Marcos Police Department filed the 2024 UCR row behind San Marcos's 1,903 reported offenses (5-year span 2020-2024).
This agency reports via NIBRS, the incident-based system that captures more detail per offense (multiple crimes per incident, victim/offender data) than the older summary counts.
Similar-Size Cities in Texas
Crime rates read differently at different scales, so these are the Texas cities closest to San Marcos in population. Their populations run from 65,243 to 77,571, against 72,723 here. Or use our
side-by-side compare tool
to benchmark two cities directly.
In 2024, San Marcos reported 261 violent crimes and 1,642 property crimes, for a total of 1,903 reported offenses.
Is crime increasing or decreasing in San Marcos?
From 2023 to 2024, San Marcos's violent crime rate decreased by 22.1%, and the property crime rate decreased by 2%.
What is the most common crime in San Marcos?
The most common crime type in San Marcos is larceny-theft, accounting for 61.2% of all reported crimes (1,164 incidents in 2024).
Large-city read: San Marcos's rates come from the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, CIUS Table 8, vintage 2024.
Incomplete reporters stay out of rate rankings. Cross-check population with Census ACS; state UCR programs for statewide context. Primary verify links: FBI.gov UCR, Census QuickFacts.
Disclaimer (large city): informational crime rates only - not legal, insurance, or personal-safety advice. Source: FBI UCR. Ask a qualified professional before acting.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program CIUS Table 8 municipal crime rates · 2024 San Marcos, TX rates use the reporting-year population on the municipal row.